Exceptional
by Yemi Hikari
Summary: Kelly doesn't realize that there are reprecussions for the school meeting that was called to try to ban the students from school, but legally there are.


_Disclaimer – I do not own X-Men Evolution. This fanfic is dedicated, as my fiftieth to be published on the site, to the people I know with special needs, expesully those on site who have over come a learning disability to do their best at writing fanfiction. I would love to mention all of you names, but not only are there to many, I don't wish any of you to be targeted by flamers. Thank you and please enjoy. AU_

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Exceptional

The boys from the Brotherhood household had nothing better then to do during the day then to rove the streets. Even though the school board had gone and let mutants back into the school, Kelly had used the Brotherhood in a way that made them angry. He then expelled them from the school, even though they did what he wanted, and Duncan got away, as if he hadn't done anything.

It had been quite a few weeks of boredom. With no power to their home yet again, they had little or no knowledge of the events that were happening to them. Everything was as if they were back where they had been before Mystique had found them, neglected and forgotten by the society that seemed to prefer to let them fall through the cracks. Wasn't that what they did with misfits?

It came as a surprise to them that there was a press conference being held in front of the city hall. Lance pulled his Jeep over in some secluded area so that they could listen. He put his feet up on the dash and hoped that it wasn't Kelly that was speaking to the conference. If it was, he, Fred and Todd would not be able to restrain themselves from attacking the man. Expesully Lance, as he _had _wanted to go back to school.

"Hello people of Bayville. I am representing to day a very happy committee of parents who feel that justice has been served in this court case that has been held behind closed doors," a lady with blond hair said into the microphone.

"Yeah… they probably filed some dumb lawsuit against a mutant and won," Todd mumbled.

"That isn't right… is it Lance?" Fred asked the older boy.

"No Freddy, it isn't," the disgruntled teenager commented.

"The news is going to shock most of the community, as quite a few have had a high regard for these people. Indicted are all the members of the School Board and School Comity, as is Principle Kelly."

"What the hell!" Lance said, only to have Todd and Fred cover his mouth so that they wouldn't be discovered.

"No way… what the hell did they get caught for… embezzlement?" Todd asked.

"The parents that I have the privilege of representing are those who have exceptional children with learning disabilities or special gifts in the community. They have found that there has been some recent activity that undermined certain laws placed forward to protect exceptional learners, which is why they placed it in front of Judge Comers."

"I have special needs… I was placed in special classes at school," Fred whispered trying not to start to cry. "Do I count in this?"

"I don't think so Freddy," Todd commented sadly. "I don't think they care about any of us mutants."

"For those who don't know, there is Federal legislation that states that if a school district does not take care of its special needs students, they will lose all Federal funding. There have been certain actions that have decried to the parents of special needs students that while their children have not yet been hit, there is a chance that their children's rights to an education will be denied too."

"Wow…" Todd stated. "I didn't know that the school could lose funding for that, of all things."

"I recall something like that at my last foster home. My old foster mom had to threaten to report the school unless they made it more accessible to my foster brother who used a wheel chair," Lance commented, having had his mouth uncovered."

"It has come to the notice of the parents that the school, instead of providing accommodations for the students have insisted that they don't belong and can actually go elsewhere, so long as it isn't our schools. They haven't even tried to find a solution other then banning these students from school, which thankfully has fallen through."

"Sounds like the X-Men," Todd mumbled. "Wish they had gotten kicked out like us."

"You and me both," Lance muttered.

"Also, the schools have not provided what can be considered the least restrictive environment, LRE, for some of these students. For some, this can be the mainstream classroom. For some, it means providing special accommodations for testing and so forth, while others need an away room, but still, the school would rather have kicked them out then find solutions."

"Ha… they did kick us out and I _am_ special needs," Fred said, sinking into the backseat of the jeep as best as he could. The other two thought they heard a snuffle from him.

"We've also had it come to our attention that some of these students have actually been expelled. Law stated that all rules apply to these students as it does to others, but we have information that there was a student that didn't get punished who wasn't in the exceptional category, or at least not like these children who had gotten expelled were,"

"Reminds me of that moron Duncan," Lance muttered, not happy about the situation.

"If he was a moron, wouldn't he be considered an _exceptional learner_? " Fred asked Lance, but the other boy just shook his head, not sure about all of this.

"It has also come to our attention that the ones that were expelled also fell under the category of needing to provide an education even though they were expelled, even if it is to send a teacher to the home. Principle Kelly did not take this into consideration and has not provided them with the education that they need."

"Sounds just like us," Fred said, sniffling again.

"Shush… I wanna hear this Freddy," Todd commented.

"The city council has decided to pass a constitutional amendment to our city's legislature guaranteeing the rights of these individuals from anymore discrimination." The lady said. "Mutant abilities fall under gifted and talented, in that they are a special skill that most other's don't have, but also a disability, as some, if not the majority of these powers need to be learned to be controlled and used properly."

"What the crap!" Lance said suddenly, his foot hitting his car horn, which caused Fred to grab his mouth and Todd to pull his legs off the dash board of the Jeep. A bunch of boos went up from the crowd, but there seemed to be a lot more cheers. A new person got on stage, followed by a little girl in a wheelchair.

"Hello. I am Mr. Amistad. I am one of the ones who pushed for this case. Hate me all you want, those of you who hate the mutants, but I find fault in the logic that they should be considered dangerous. Expesully since it was _Kelly _who has caused a lot of misunderstandings about the X-Men and the Brotherhood."

"Yeah right! How can Kelly have been wrong!"

"Considering that he has had a bias against mutants for a very long time, it isn't surprising. Here are a few more details that you should know. Kelly said that Hank McCoy attacked him, but there is a chance that Kelly mistook what he saw. Second, we have talked to the student who _didn't _get expelled due to the board meeting. He said that it _was_ Kelly's idea for him to get the Brotherhood to trash the board meeting.

The man then continued. "In other words, Kelly wants you to believe that mutants are dangerous, when in reality it is no different then a martial artist who becomes a cop, a normal citizen or a common street thug. Fact is too, that meeting he called to decide to ban the Mutants from school was illegal, and _if_ it had passed, our school district would have lost all Federal funding from the government."

"Not if Mutants aren't recognized as _special_," one man chimed in.

"Well then, what is to stop someone from harassing a child who was born with a disfigurement and that is the only mutant thing they have. Or a child who _doesn't _even have the X-Gene, yet was born with a physical defect. I also can tell you _why_ Bayville needs to push this forward. Do we want to be known as the city that was forefront in Mutant prejudice, or the forefront in pushing forward equality for all, non-mutant and mutant alike."

"But seriously, Kelly can't be kicked out of the Principle position. He's running for Senate,"

"He isn't either anymore," the man said. "And anyways, do you really want someone who is like that in public office? A new school board meeting is being called about the so called mutant problem. I say so called, as the mutants aren't the problem, it is how we are dealing with them and helping them integrate into the society as normal as possible, which by law we have to do. Thank you for coming!"

Fred uncovered Lance's mouth at that time. "Lance, does this mean we can go back to school?"

"No, duh… we're the Brotherhood… well. You possibly will be, but not us two," Lance said, turning on the jeep. "We're going home."

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Author's note – When X-Men was first designed, a lot of the legislation that was designed for special needs protection was not there. It has come a long way, and yes… mutant abilities would be protected under these laws… and parents, I suggest knowing them for your kids' sake, because they are important to know, even without the mutant abilities. Also, it is true that if the school had decided to ban mutants, they would have run the chance of losing all Federal finding. Of course… we don't know how prejudice would run.


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